Performance of the ALICE VZERO system


Abbas E., Abelev B., Adam J., Adamová D., Adare A., Aggarwal M., ...More

Journal of Instrumentation, vol.8, no.10, 2013 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus) identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 8 Issue: 10
  • Publication Date: 2013
  • Doi Number: 10.1088/1748-0221/8/10/p10016
  • Journal Name: Journal of Instrumentation
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Keywords: Heavy-ion detectors, Large detector systems for particle and astroparticle physics, Large detector-systems performance, Trigger detectors
  • Yıldız Technical University Affiliated: No

Abstract

ALICE is an LHC experiment devoted to the study of strongly interacting matter in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at ultra-relativistic energies. The ALICE VZERO system, made of two scintillator arrays at asymmetric positions, one on each side of the interaction point, plays a central role in ALICE. In addition to its core function as a trigger source, the VZERO system is used to monitor LHC beam conditions, to reject beam-induced backgrounds and to measure basic physics quantities such as luminosity, particle multiplicity, centrality and event plane direction in nucleus-nucleus collisions. After describing the VZERO system, this publication presents its performance over more than four years of operation at the LHC.© CERN 2013 for the benefit of the Alice collaboration.